HDR mod!

[rsslcs]

Yes, this little gem adds Bloom and other niceties to RS2. It modifies no files, so it is easily removeable.
Place in your RS2 main directory. That's it, you're done.
Want feedback for how it looks of course.

LATEST BLOOM SETTINGS:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[PROXY]
EnableProxyLibrary=0
InitProxyFunctions=1
ProxyLibrary=
[GLOBAL]
UseEffect=1
AlternativeDepth=1
AllowAntialias=0
BugFixMode=1
SkipShaderOptimization=1
QuadVertexBuffer=1
[EFFECT]
EnableBloom=1
EnableOcclusion=1
EnableReflection=0
EnableMotionBlur=0
EnableWater=1
EnableShadow=1
DepthBias=1
[INPUT]
KeyUseEffect=123
KeyBloom=120
KeyOcclusion=121
KeyReflection=122
KeyCombination=16
KeyShadow=119
KeyWater=118
[REFLECTION]
ReflectionPower=24
ChromePower=20
UseCurrentFrameReflection=1
ReflectionQuality=0
ReflectionSourceSpecular=100
ReflectionSourceTFactor=100
UseAdditiveReflection=1
ReflectionDepthBias=1
UseLowResReflection=0
ReflectionSinglePass=0
[BLOOM]
BloomPowerDay=5.6
BloomFadeTime=1333.32
BloomConstantDay=5.6
BloomQuality=0
BloomScreenLevelDay=50
BloomCurveDay=2.8
BloomPowerNight=5.4
BloomConstantNight=6.0
BloomCurveNight=2.9
BloomScreenLevelNight=33.33
BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=53.333
BloomAdaptationMultiplier=13.33
BloomAllowOversaturation=1
[SSAO]
UseFilter=1
OcclusionQuality=1
FilterQuality=1
DarkeningLevel=23.5
BrighteningLevel=13
IlluminationLevel=6
AdditiveIlluminationLevel=3
UseAmbientOcclusion=1
UseIndirectLightning=1
[COLORCORRECTION]
DarkeningAmountDay=5
ScreenLevelDay=100
ScreenLevelNight=100
DarkeningAmountNight=10
GammaCurveDay=1
GammaCurveNight=1
ColorSaturationDay=50
ColorSaturationNight=50
UsePaletteTexture=1
[PLUGIN]
WeatherMod=0
[WATER]
UseWaterDeep=0
WaterDeepness=20
WaterQuality=3
[SHADOW]
ShadowFadeStart=160
ShadowFadeEnd=320
ShadowAmountDay=120
ShadowAmountNight=60
ShadowScreenLevelDay=120
ShadowScreenLevelNight=40
ShadowQuality=0
UseShadowFilter=1
FilterQuality=1
[ENGINE]
ForceAnisotropicFiltering=0
MaxAnisotropy=0
ForceDisplayRefreshRate=0
DisplayRefreshRateHz=60
[MOTIONBLUR]
MotionBlurQuality=0
MotionBlurVelocity=100
MotionBlurRotation=100

LATEST Descr_battle_map_lighting_and_fog_control.txt

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; general
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

enable_gloom

sun_below_horizon_night_lighting_out -7.0
sun_below_horizon_night_lighting_full 2.0

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; lighting
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

min_light_intensity 0.4
max_light_intensity 1.2
ambient_reduce_proportion 0.85
ambient_red_increase_proportion 0.3
ambient_green_increase_proportion 0.3
ambient_blue_increase_proportion 0.38

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; unit lighting
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

unit_min_light_intensity 0.65
unit_max_light_intensity 1.4
unit_ambient_reduce_proportion 0.8
unit_ambient_red_increase_proportion 0.34
unit_ambient_green_increase_proportion 0.32
unit_ambient_blue_increase_proportion 0.35
unit_ambient_multiplier 1.2
unit_diffuse_multiplier 1.6

unit_night_min_light_intensity 0.45
unit_night_max_light_intensity 1.0
unit_night_ambient_reduce_proportion 0.35
unit_night_ambient_red_increase_proportion 0.25
unit_night_ambient_green_increase_proportion 0.30
unit_night_ambient_blue_increase_proportion 0.35
unit_night_ambient_multiplier 0.6
unit_night_diffuse_multiplier 0.9

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; fog
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

settlement_exponential_modifier 0.0002
camera_height_exponential_modifier -0.00025
camera_exponential_modifier_max_height 100.0
min_fog_exponential 0.00015
min_fog_intensity 0.0001
haze_to_fog_transition_exponential 0.0001
haze_to_fog_transition_exponential_range 0.00015
gloom_fog_exponential 0.0001

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Backup this file in case something goes wrong!
Toggle on/off: Use Shift+F12
I recommend using the minimal UI so that you can hide menus and unit icons, as the UI is affected by bloom. Sadly, there is no way around it as far as I can see.

Known issues:
-The game starts with a black screen. When everything goes psychedelic and the menu music starts, Alt-tab out and then restore the game to actually start playing. I'm trying (in vain ) to get this fixed, but no luck as of yet.

-The sky looks wierd at times, due to bloom. A compromise had to be made. Either have units with hardly any colour in them, or have an over-saturated sky.

That's it, I think. Untested in campaign as of yet. Bloom adjusts itself so that you are not blinded when a window pops up.
Looks better in-game than in these pics of course.
Pics:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

With HDR:
Without HDR:

All credit for the original files goes to the creator who isn't me. I just made it look pretty in RTW. Also thanks to Elendil of Numenor for assisting me.
STILL AN ALPHA EXPERIMENTAL BETA UNSTABLE BUGGY UNTESTED ARMED & DANGEROUS WIP!

[tone]

Good work.
We can always adjust unit lighting to compensate.

[tone]

Two things....
1) I think we need to turn the bloom down a little as we're losing a load of contrast and colour

2) My framerate is actually faster with this turned on, it seems

[rsslcs]

I'll see what I can do. I can hopefully maintain bloom levels (that's if you don't also want them lowered just because they're too high) by increasing colour saturation, and by tweaking ambient occlusion to darken/lighten more.

[tone]

It'd be great to have a little less bloom, more saturation and more contrast.

Here's a comparison of the two - good and bad things about both.....one of the things you lose with the bloom is some degree of precision in the textures and so on. If we could get the lighting and colours of the second with the just a little less bloom than the first, it'd be perfect.

With:


Without:

[rsslcs]

After hours and hours of mindless alt-tabbing and number crunching with Google's own calculator, I realised that the solution to my colour problem was to turn ambient occlusion off. I now have another ini which applies light bloom, and no darkening. That results in less colour loss!

Just copy-paste that vvvvv to your enbseries.ini (overwrite everything.)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[PROXY]
EnableProxyLibrary=0
InitProxyFunctions=1
ProxyLibrary=
[GLOBAL]
UseEffect=1
AlternativeDepth=1
AllowAntialias=0
BugFixMode=1
SkipShaderOptimization=1
QuadVertexBuffer=1
[EFFECT]
EnableBloom=1
EnableOcclusion=0
EnableReflection=0
EnableMotionBlur=1
EnableWater=1
EnableShadow=1
DepthBias=1
[INPUT]
KeyUseEffect=123
KeyBloom=120
KeyOcclusion=121
KeyReflection=122
KeyCombination=16
KeyShadow=119
KeyWater=118
[REFLECTION]
ReflectionPower=24
ChromePower=20
UseCurrentFrameReflection=1
ReflectionQuality=0
ReflectionSourceSpecular=100
ReflectionSourceTFactor=100
UseAdditiveReflection=1
ReflectionDepthBias=1
UseLowResReflection=0
ReflectionSinglePass=0
[BLOOM]
BloomPowerDay=4
BloomFadeTime=1333.32
BloomConstantDay=5.2
BloomQuality=0
BloomScreenLevelDay=50
BloomCurveDay=2
BloomPowerNight=4
BloomConstantNight=6.6
BloomCurveNight=2
BloomScreenLevelNight=33.33
BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=53.333
BloomAdaptationMultiplier=13.33
BloomAllowOversaturation=1
[SSAO]
UseFilter=1
OcclusionQuality=1
FilterQuality=1
DarkeningLevel=5
BrighteningLevel=15
IlluminationLevel=10
AdditiveIlluminationLevel=5
UseAmbientOcclusion=1
UseIndirectLightning=1
[COLORCORRECTION]
DarkeningAmountDay=5
ScreenLevelDay=100
ScreenLevelNight=100
DarkeningAmountNight=5
GammaCurveDay=0
GammaCurveNight=1
ColorSaturationDay=50
ColorSaturationNight=50
UsePaletteTexture=1
[PLUGIN]
WeatherMod=0
[WATER]
UseWaterDeep=0
WaterDeepness=20
WaterQuality=3
[SHADOW]
ShadowFadeStart=160
ShadowFadeEnd=320
ShadowAmountDay=120
ShadowAmountNight=60
ShadowScreenLevelDay=120
ShadowScreenLevelNight=40
ShadowQuality=0
UseShadowFilter=1
FilterQuality=1
[ENGINE]
ForceAnisotropicFiltering=0
MaxAnisotropy=0
ForceDisplayRefreshRate=0
DisplayRefreshRateHz=60
[MOTIONBLUR]
MotionBlurQuality=0
MotionBlurVelocity=100
MotionBlurRotation=100

Feedback is much appreciated.

[algorath]

could u post some comparison screens?

[saxdude]

Tested it, my problem with this is that it seems to cancel out the beginning image that says roma surrectum and when its changing from the menu to (for example) the battle map, the loading page goes black or like this: and i have to alttab to get it off, is there any way around this? also the blooming effect gets to the UI but i dont know if that can be fixed as well.
Either way i took some screens with rsslcs settings though isnt the bloom a little to subtle??

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Rome really does look magestic though....

[Naked fanatic]

Does it affect FPS?

[rsslcs]

Apparently, it makes them better. And Saxdude, at startup you need to alt+tab out when you hear the menu music. I can't correct the startup screen issue, take a look at the first post. Fix the loading screen issue by only switching bloom on during gameplay.

@Saxdude: Put this into your ini. Bloom is a bit stronger in this one. Replace the previous settings.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[PROXY]
EnableProxyLibrary=0
InitProxyFunctions=1
ProxyLibrary=
[GLOBAL]
UseEffect=1
AlternativeDepth=1
AllowAntialias=0
BugFixMode=1
SkipShaderOptimization=1
QuadVertexBuffer=1
[EFFECT]
EnableBloom=1
EnableOcclusion=0
EnableReflection=0
EnableMotionBlur=1
EnableWater=1
EnableShadow=1
DepthBias=1
[INPUT]
KeyUseEffect=123
KeyBloom=120
KeyOcclusion=121
KeyReflection=122
KeyCombination=16
KeyShadow=119
KeyWater=118
[REFLECTION]
ReflectionPower=24
ChromePower=20
UseCurrentFrameReflection=1
ReflectionQuality=0
ReflectionSourceSpecular=100
ReflectionSourceTFactor=100
UseAdditiveReflection=1
ReflectionDepthBias=1
UseLowResReflection=0
ReflectionSinglePass=0
[BLOOM]
BloomPowerDay=4.9
BloomFadeTime=1333.32
BloomConstantDay=5.6
BloomQuality=0
BloomScreenLevelDay=50
BloomCurveDay=3
BloomPowerNight=4.9
BloomConstantNight=7.0
BloomCurveNight=3
BloomScreenLevelNight=33.33
BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=53.333
BloomAdaptationMultiplier=13.33
BloomAllowOversaturation=1
[SSAO]
UseFilter=1
OcclusionQuality=1
FilterQuality=1
DarkeningLevel=5
BrighteningLevel=15
IlluminationLevel=10
AdditiveIlluminationLevel=5
UseAmbientOcclusion=1
UseIndirectLightning=1
[COLORCORRECTION]
DarkeningAmountDay=5
ScreenLevelDay=100
ScreenLevelNight=100
DarkeningAmountNight=5
GammaCurveDay=0
GammaCurveNight=1
ColorSaturationDay=50
ColorSaturationNight=50
UsePaletteTexture=1
[PLUGIN]
WeatherMod=0
[WATER]
UseWaterDeep=0
WaterDeepness=20
WaterQuality=3
[SHADOW]
ShadowFadeStart=160
ShadowFadeEnd=320
ShadowAmountDay=120
ShadowAmountNight=60
ShadowScreenLevelDay=120
ShadowScreenLevelNight=40
ShadowQuality=0
UseShadowFilter=1
FilterQuality=1
[ENGINE]
ForceAnisotropicFiltering=0
MaxAnisotropy=0
ForceDisplayRefreshRate=0
DisplayRefreshRateHz=60
[MOTIONBLUR]
MotionBlurQuality=0
MotionBlurVelocity=100
MotionBlurRotation=100

EDIT: A pretty comparison shot!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bloom on:

Bloom off:

I can always turn bloom up if the effect is too weak.

[algorath]

looks great

[tone]

Is there any way to increase the contrast / make things darker as although the bloom effect is good, the effect is to make things look somewhat washed out?

[rsslcs]

No luck yet. Later versions of ENBseries have that feature built-in, but unfortunately, they break the game.

EDIT: My latest ini. As far as I can tell, there is no longer any colour loss, and contrast is maybe slightly better, but it's hard to improve contrast without losing colour because of the way the SSAO works.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[PROXY]
EnableProxyLibrary=0
InitProxyFunctions=1
ProxyLibrary=
[GLOBAL]
UseEffect=1
AlternativeDepth=1
AllowAntialias=0
BugFixMode=1
SkipShaderOptimization=1
QuadVertexBuffer=1
[EFFECT]
EnableBloom=1
EnableOcclusion=0
EnableReflection=0
EnableMotionBlur=1
EnableWater=1
EnableShadow=1
DepthBias=1
[INPUT]
KeyUseEffect=123
KeyBloom=120
KeyOcclusion=121
KeyReflection=122
KeyCombination=16
KeyShadow=119
KeyWater=118
[REFLECTION]
ReflectionPower=24
ChromePower=20
UseCurrentFrameReflection=1
ReflectionQuality=0
ReflectionSourceSpecular=100
ReflectionSourceTFactor=100
UseAdditiveReflection=1
ReflectionDepthBias=1
UseLowResReflection=0
ReflectionSinglePass=0
[BLOOM]
BloomPowerDay=4.9
BloomFadeTime=1333.32
BloomConstantDay=5.6
BloomQuality=0
BloomScreenLevelDay=50
BloomCurveDay=3
BloomPowerNight=4.9
BloomConstantNight=7.0
BloomCurveNight=3
BloomScreenLevelNight=33.33
BloomAdaptationScreenLevel=53.333
BloomAdaptationMultiplier=13.33
BloomAllowOversaturation=1
[SSAO]
UseFilter=1
OcclusionQuality=1
FilterQuality=1
DarkeningLevel=10
BrighteningLevel=10
IlluminationLevel=5
AdditiveIlluminationLevel=2
UseAmbientOcclusion=1
UseIndirectLightning=1
[COLORCORRECTION]
DarkeningAmountDay=0
ScreenLevelDay=100
ScreenLevelNight=100
DarkeningAmountNight=10
GammaCurveDay=0
GammaCurveNight=1
ColorSaturationDay=50
ColorSaturationNight=50
UsePaletteTexture=1
[PLUGIN]
WeatherMod=0
[WATER]
UseWaterDeep=0
WaterDeepness=20
WaterQuality=3
[SHADOW]
ShadowFadeStart=160
ShadowFadeEnd=320
ShadowAmountDay=120
ShadowAmountNight=60
ShadowScreenLevelDay=120
ShadowScreenLevelNight=40
ShadowQuality=0
UseShadowFilter=1
FilterQuality=1
[ENGINE]
ForceAnisotropicFiltering=0
MaxAnisotropy=0
ForceDisplayRefreshRate=0
DisplayRefreshRateHz=60
[MOTIONBLUR]
MotionBlurQuality=0
MotionBlurVelocity=100
MotionBlurRotation=100

[tone]

We could just tweak the lighting in the descr_battlemap_lighting_and_fog_control.txt file to compensate.

[rsslcs]

How's the bloom? Is it there yet? I turned it down, but it was too low in some peoples opinion, so I turned it back up again but not as much as previuosly. I have also tried to add bloom without brightening the screen up too much so that night battles don't get ruined.

[tone]

Would you be happy to have a go at tweaking the lighting file and see whether you can make some changes to compensate?

[rsslcs]

To make the contrast better? I've never really touched on modding apart from creating buildpics and just looking at what the files do, so I'm a bit of a novice I'm afraid. But if you tell me where the files are, I can usually work them out.

[Elendil of Númenor]

Don't worry, it's quite simple. It's in the main data folder, "descr_battlemap_lighting_and_fog_control.txt"

Change the numbers there - not too big changes.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; general
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

enable_gloom

sun_below_horizon_night_lighting_out -7.0
sun_below_horizon_night_lighting_full 2.0

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; lighting
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

min_light_intensity 0.5
max_light_intensity 1.2
ambient_reduce_proportion 0.85
ambient_red_increase_proportion 0.3
ambient_green_increase_proportion 0.3
ambient_blue_increase_proportion 0.38

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; unit lighting
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

unit_min_light_intensity 0.8
unit_max_light_intensity 1.4
unit_ambient_reduce_proportion 0.8
unit_ambient_red_increase_proportion 0.34
unit_ambient_green_increase_proportion 0.32
unit_ambient_blue_increase_proportion 0.35
unit_ambient_multiplier 1.1
unit_diffuse_multiplier 1.1

unit_night_min_light_intensity 0.5
unit_night_max_light_intensity 0.8
unit_night_ambient_reduce_proportion 0.35
unit_night_ambient_red_increase_proportion 0.25
unit_night_ambient_green_increase_proportion 0.30
unit_night_ambient_blue_increase_proportion 0.35
unit_night_ambient_multiplier 0.5
unit_night_diffuse_multiplier 0.5

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;
; fog
;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

settlement_exponential_modifier 0.0002
camera_height_exponential_modifier -0.00025
camera_exponential_modifier_max_height 100.0
min_fog_exponential 0.00015
min_fog_intensity 0.0001
haze_to_fog_transition_exponential 0.0001
haze_to_fog_transition_exponential_range 0.00015
gloom_fog_exponential 0.0001

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Under general lighting is the lighting of the 'environment', everything you see, and under unit lighting is the amount of and the way light effects units on the battle map. I don't think there's anything you need to do with fog.
Quite simple really, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it...

[tone]

First of all just try tweaks to this:
min_light_intensity 0.5
max_light_intensity 1.2

and this
unit_min_light_intensity 0.8
unit_max_light_intensity 1.4

[rsslcs]

Ok thanks. I'm on it now. To add comments to the file (to tell me what each value does once I work everything out) can I just add a ; before the comment like in lua?

EDIT: Can anyone tell me what these lines do? I've modified the values with no noticeable result. I was hoping they would increase colour saturation.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

ambient_reduce_proportion 0.85
ambient_red_increase_proportion 0.3
ambient_green_increase_proportion 0.3
ambient_blue_increase_proportion 0.38

then:
unit_ambient_reduce_proportion 0.8
unit_ambient_red_increase_proportion 0.34
unit_ambient_green_increase_proportion 0.32
unit_ambient_blue_increase_proportion 0.35

There is also one for the night battles.

It also seems that unit lighting has the same effect as ambient occlusion in ENBseries. Press shift+F9 to disable bloom but to retain colour correction and you'll see the effect. I'm still looking at the values in the descr file though, because you can change the environment and units separately which is pretty useful, and the min and max values widen the range of lighting that you can have too. (of course you already know that. )

EDIT:
Ok- Modified unit lighting a tad, mostly the difference between light and dark on units is greater to look better with bloom on. I've turned bloom down a bit, but not as much as last time so that the effect is still noticeable. Ambient occlusion has been turned up: More darkening and more lighting to hopefully increase contrast. Ideally, I need a way to increase colour saturation to reduce the negative effect on textures. Enb colour correction does not seem to work, and editing the above values did nothing too.

Here's the latest ini complete with descr_battle_map_lighting_and_fog_control.txt (see attachment) Look at the OP, all the latest stuff is there.